A tugboat submerged in the Houston Ship Channel must be raised before officials can determine what led to its fatal sinking, officials said.
The body of one crewmember of the J.R. Nichols was recovered on Thursday, the day after the tug sank with five people aboard near the Sims Bayou turning basin.
Workers from the nearby LyondellBasell refinery helped rescue the four others after the tug sank about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
No identities were released on Thursday. Coast Guard officials will interview the surviving crewmembers from the 56-foot tug owned by Kinder Morgan and other boats near the scene as part of their inquiry. The investigation into the sinking won’t be complete until the tug is raised.
“They have to see the vessel before they come to a conclusion,” said Petty Officer Prentice Danner, a Coast Guard spokesman.
The tugboat will be raised no sooner than this weekend, and that’s only if the weather holds, Danner added.
The owner and crew of the Nels J., formerly the Ares, will tell the story of how they got the tug from a scrap yard in Texas to the Duluth harbor
Ares pulled into the Duluth harbor on Oct. 27, a successful finish to a journey that included filling the boat with 60,000 gallons of water to get it under a bridge in Illinois, a misunderstanding at a slip in South Chicago, unpredictable weather conditions and four days in Michigan with bad lake conditions. Ares has had a name change to Nels J. and will be put to work in the spring.
It was the stuff adventure stories are made of: a touch of Huckleberry Finn meets the Great Lakes, “Gilligan’s Island” and some Popeye thrown in for good measure.
In late October, a local crew was part of a 16-day mission to bring a retired tugboat named Ares from a scrap yard in Texas to Lemont, Ill., to Duluth. The journey included grubby toilets, ingenuity, a little luck, high seas and an encounter that nearly ended in fisticuffs. Now, the tug — which has been renamed Nels J. and will begin its career as an icebreaker in the spring — can be seen to the east when you cruise over the Blatnik Bridge into Superior. [Continue Reading →]
Today’s Incident Photo Of The Week is the tugboat “The Carrie”. News 6 in Corpus Christi tells us:
A tugboat caught fire at about 7 a.m. Tuesday after pushing a barge from Ingleside to Rincon Channel to offload some diesel fuel and brine water.
Port of Corpus Christi Assistant Chief Tom Mylett said that when it came into the channel, the captain of “The Carrie” discovered a flash fire in the engine room.
The barge’s contents were the biggest concern.
“It was 500 gallons of diesel fuel, from what we understand, that was on the barge, that was set for delivery inside Rincon. Then, there were several other drums you have on your footage of brine water; nonflammable material,” Mylett said.
There was also an additional 500 gallons of fuel on the tugboat.
As we reported last week, this past weekend was the 16th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition organized by the Working Harbor Committee, and once again it failed to disappoint. The competition went on without a hitch with a total of 29 participating. Looks like it was a beautiful summer day on the Hudson seems like a good time was had all around.
Unofficial results announced Sunday state that Ross Sea won the race but we are still waiting on official results to be released which might not be until later this week. Bernard Ente of the Working Harbor Committee tells us:
Results will take a few days to tabulate. Every boat runs against the clock as well as a handicap for size/weight/power. Some captains are playfully objecting to the unofficial results announced yesterday. Bragging rights in the harbor are important! So we have to wait for the official papers.
Bernard is also the photographer for the Working Harbor Committee and provided us with these great photos and video below. Enjoy!
Tugs Catherine C Miller and Susan Miller proudly wave the red, white and blue on the Hudson.
Tug Dorothy Elizabeth powers through the water. Even the New York Fire Department showed up to put on a show for onlookers.
Tugs race down the harbor for bragging rights for the year ahead.
Dorothy Elizabeth and Pegasus square up for the bow to bow push, a crowd favorite. [Continue Reading →]
We have just received some more information from the Working Harbor Committee on this weekends 16th Annual New York Tugboat Race and sounds like it is really shaping up to be a great event with lot’s of fun things to watch. We did post an entry on the competition last week, but just to reiterate on what it is in case you missed it I have provided this brief description:
The New York Tugboat Race is an annual contest held every August in the Hudson River for working tugboats. The contest includes competitions such as a 1 nautical mile race, a line throwing contest and the exciting bow to bow pushing contest. The race is organized by the Working Harbor Committee, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to spreading the word about the rich history, current vitality and future potential of the New York/New Jersey Harbor.
The following was submitted to us by the Working Harbor Committee’s Bernard Ente, Steering Committee Member. He tells us:
We have 22 tugs in the event as of last night (Thursday).
The newest of the tugs is Andrew McAllister, a 95-foot, 6,000-horsepower tractor tug making her New York Harbor debut. She is said to be the boat to beat.
Pegasus will be returning to harbor service after a five-year restoration. Now a fully operating museum vessel, Pegasus will be helmed by her long-time captain, Pamela Hepburn, one of the first women tugboat captains in U.S.
Other competitors will include the South Street Seaport Museum’s 47-foot W.O. Decker, 107 year-old Urger, the flagship of the New York State Canal System, and several modern working tugs operated by Reinauer Transportation, K-Sea Transportation, Vinik Marine, Henry Marine Service, Bren Transportation, Miller’s Tugs and Barges and the U.S. Coast Guard.
We should be receiving the entire parade roster shortly and will post it in an update as soon as we have it. For now, we look forward to Sunday’s event and receiving photos and stories from our readers that can be submitted to tips@gcaptain.com.
On Sunday, August 31 is the 16th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition held at Pier 84 on the Hudson River. I know last year this event was a big hit and we look forward to it again this year. Below is a description of the event from nyc.gov.
Tugboats from all of the tug and towing companies in New York Harbor, as well as historic tugboats, will motor into Pier 84 for the Great North River Tugboat Race and Challenge. The event kicks off with a parade of tugboats from Pier 84 to the race start line near the 79th Street Basin.
The tugboats will then race one nautical mile back to Pier 84. Awards will be presented to each class of boats, broken down by total horsepower. Following the race there will be a bow to bow pushing contest and a line throwing contest, in which deck hands will attempt to lasso a bollard and tie off in the fastest time possible. There will also be a contest to determine the best decorated tug.
Spectators can purchase tickets to view all the festivities from fireboat John J. Harvey, which will depart from Pier 83 and will offer the closest viewing of the action. Free viewing is also available at Pier 84.
For more information on this and other fun events, visit the Working Harbor Committee website HERE.
Although originally from the NYC area, gCaptain works out of California so we are sorry to say we won’t be able to make it, but if any readers out there do attend, we would love to from you. Email us at tips@gCaptain.com
The 420,000-gallon oil spill polluting 98 miles of the Mississippi River happened early Wednesday when a 61-foot barge carrying the fuel collided with a tanker, just north of the massive bridges connecting downtown New Orleans to communities across the river.
Operations to salvage the barge, which is owned by American Commercial Lines Inc., were to begin Thursday, said Petty Officer Jaclyn Young. She said the barge was no longer leaking oil.
Containment booms were installed Wednesday to prevent the oil from spreading to environmentally sensitive areas and seeping into water-supply intake valves in Gretna, St. Bernard, Dalcour, Belle Chasse, Pointe a la Hache, Port Sulphur and Boothville-Venice, Young said.
The tug Mel Oliver, which had been hired to push the barge upriver, had no properly licensed crew on board the vessel, Young said. The tugboat pilot had only an apprentice mate’s license instead of the required master’s license, she added.
We are still in the process of sorting out information regarding the cause of the incident but are familiar with the state of American Commercial Lines in light of their recent financial difficulties. In our close working relationship with Northeast Maritime Institute we have learned that ACL had abruptly ended a contract established to train ACL’s mariners. This training was developed to provide unlicensed crew members training as captains and helped them get both the skills need to navigate inland rivers. Specific to collision avoidance the Institute used hands on training from licensed instructors as well as advanced ship simulators that allow mariners to simulate transits on the Mississippi.
gCaptain is also investigating a death that occurred recently when a captain fell overboard. Initial reports question the role vessel maintenance played in the incident.
We have been informed that the tugboat pushing an American Commercial Lines barge was owned and operated by a 3rd party vendor, not ACL. With further research gCaptain has also learned that ACL had identified the need to vet the level of training provided to mariners by vendor companies. According to a Northeast Maritime Institute representative they had made significant progress in the development of this program when ACL walked away from the training contract with NMI in June of this year.
The Contra Costa Times article “Critics Fear More Barge Disasters” of February 19, 2008 and the KGO TV Channel 7 report on tug boat licensing presented eye opening views on the crewing and operations of harbor tugs. Although in excellent detail the views expressed and the comments made by active tug operators presented a deeper problem than just the shortage of qualified people. It illuminated the government intervention into unfamiliar fields using academic research techniques. Such data gathering processes are excellent in determining sales, production and pedestrian patterns but when dealing with people’s, livelihoods and professional experience and knowledge, they are inappropriate.Of concern, in this case, is the process used to publish intentions to make new or change rules. Obviously, by the limited number of reported written responses (14) to a possible population of several thousand the sampling was insignificant.
Therefore to continue further is ineffective. A better and more effective sampling technique is warranted. The USCG criteria “to make a good case” is certainly not convincing or professional.
There is no doubt that the tug people, like so many other transportation occupations need to improve their safety, education and training. An example of an acceptable level of effort put forth is the airline industry; however, the public pays. In my experience, I have found tug people, inland and off shore, to be concerned about the petty bureaucratic confusion of government officials, but angry about managerial mis-management. The law relating to tugs and tug operation as capsulated in ” Parks on the law of Tug, Tow and Pilotage” is mind boggling but almost essential reading for the guy in the pilot house. Most tug operators are given tasks and provided two options: either do the job, or some one else will. Few will support them in confrontations with management involving risk, safety and lawful precedence, mostly it is: up to the tug skipper to decide. A tug operator has little choice in task, crew, time or condition although the laws hold them accountable.
It is appropriate, under the circumstances cited above, that the USCG reconsider their position based on the little response previously acquired and conduct a series of on-scene visits to the major tug boat areas and determine what is actually needed and how to accomplish it. A small professional. representative experienced team could effectively accomplish a meaningful result in a few months. The result may not be perfect, but the effort should be.
It is not what one achieves, but the effort that prove its worth.
JGD
Captain John Denham is a veteran of 66 years maritime experience in seamanship, ship handling, navigation, piloting, and education. he is also author of The Assistant and DD 891 .
SAN FRANCISCO, Calf. – The United Stated Coast Guard is responding to a tug and barge allision with the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. At approximately 6pm the tug and barge were headed outbound from Rodeo when it struck the east piling of the west span of the Richmond Bridge. The barge capacity is 65,195 barrels of heavy black oil and the ship’s crew reported no pollution on scene. Coast Guard boarding teams and small boat are on scene verifying that no pollution was released into the environment and the Coast Guard investigation has begun. All affected city, county and state first responders in the surrounding area including California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response, Richmond Police Department HAZMAT, California Office of Emergency Services, CAL TRANS, and California Highway Patrol have been notified and several of these agencies are responding to this incident. The companies contracted two oil response vessels were on scene within an hour of the allision. USCG District 11
Our friends Jim Herd of the SFist and Carl Nolte of SFGate have further coverage of the incident.
“They get to show off their stuff,” that was the response NYC Harbor Committee Chairman, Captain Doswell, gave the New York Times in response to the question “Why the tug captains enjoy the race so much?” He followed the statement up with this statement: “Just as state fairs have tractor pulls, we have the bow-to-bow pushing challenge, 2 boats meet, and at a signal one tries to push the other”
We missed the event but do have some amazing pictures to show you. Many thanks to the NYC tugboat companies that participated.
The FDNY was on hand to kick off the event with an impressive water show, spraying their fire monitors into the East River.
Get your engines ready. The tugs line up at the starting line just South of the George Washington Bridge in preparation for their one mile sprint down the Hudson River.
Dorothy Elizabeth v. two Miller Launch tugs (Susan Miller and Catherine Miller) at once with Time-Warner towers and Hearst Tower in background… Tugster
One day a year, the tugboat industry dresses up its hardworking vessels and parades them before judges, showing off fresh paint jobs, displaying horsepower in nose-to-nose pushing competitions and a one-mile sprint up the Hudson. Tug operators play rodeo cowboys, demonstrating their skill by roping a cleat from a moving vessel coming toward a dock.
And those are the earnest categories. Equally coveted are the trophies for best tugboat pet and best dressed crew, best crewmember tattoo (that can be legally displayed) and best mascot.
The event’s lightheartedness in no way means it is not taken seriously. Reinauer compares it to a tractor pull, and anyone who’s ever been through the middle of the country knows how the heartland loves its diesel. He wouldn’t be surprised if a crewmember had gotten a tattoo specifically for the competition. “I don’t know that for a fact, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Some of the tattoos are really ornate and pretty unique.” Keep Reading…
By MIKE GLENN 
and 
gCaptain On Twitter
gCaptain On Facebook
gCaptain On LinkedIn